Tuesday, December 18, 2012

UNCENSORED! Veterans Sound Off on Gulf War Illness

The response to our exclusive story here last week on Gulf War Illness has been overwhelming. As I reported, two new scientific studies confirm that the mysterious illness that has afflicted more than 250,000 American service members was largely the result of weather patterns which, after the U.S. bombing of Iraqi chemical weapon storage facilities, carried a massive toxic chemical cloud a very long distance before these chemicals fell on U.S. troops.

As I wrote last week, this is being dubbed by some as the largest example of "friendly fire" in American history, because the so-called nerve and blister agents that dropped on our troops were supplied to Iraq by the U.S. before the Gulf War.

Since the story ran, I've heard from hundreds of veterans. Here are just some of the responses I've gotten from the blog, in emails and text messages, on my social media pages, and in telephone conversations:* I sit here in somewhat of a state of shock and I don't know why, this should not be a surprise to us. We knew when those alarms were going off, multiple locations at same time, it was more than just 'bad batteries', etc. Once again our gov't has let us down, it seems to happen to every Era of Vets. Yes people need to be held accountable for any cover-up, etc. but more than anything, we HAVE to stand by our comrades and fight for them, and us, so those affected are taken care of in an appropriate and respectful manner. Enough of the calling us liars or claiming no proof, its time to do whats right for our Gulf War Vets.

* Where are our Generals and Commanding Officers? Why do they continue to remain silent on this issue? Semper Fi??? I'm not so sure that means much to these moral cowards anymore.

* You guy's are going thru the same thing the Vietnam vets have gone thru with Agent orange..Same Kind of treatment from the VA, the Government, and the chemical manufacturers.. You will probably have to wait another 10 or 15 years before anybody admits to anything, or getting any help from the VA...sorry to say that, but it starts all over again..And it's B.S.

* I was in the Gulf War and was exposed to these chemicals. When I came home a VA doctor told me my health problems were in my head. He said they were psychological and passed me on to a shrink. * I've read your coverage of veterans for the last decade. Thanks for caring about us. This story about the longtime coverup of Gulf War Syndrome should be front page news in every newspaper in the country.

* The info has been declassified on how
our government continued to send Iraq chemicals and weapons of mass destruction
up till 1992 while we were in the Gulf War which was 1990/1991. Also consider
that there are many sick and have died that never deployed who received the
shots to prepare to deploy, but never left the US.

* The only time any politician in any party cares about the troops is
when they can be used in a high-profile photo-op. And don't even think about
prying any money loose from the tentacles of the octopus. The monster needs
every dime it can get to make sure more Americans come home damaged.

* The U.S. government owes disabled vets
compensation for 20 years of neglect and suffering. And a criminal
investigation is in order for whoever was responsible for the 20-year delay.
Many knew at the time the chemical weapons were responsible, and tests would
reveal it, BUT SOMEONE COVERED IT UP.

* Those of us that came after the war for occupation and clean up had
Camp Doha, Kuwait go up in flames and explosions. These set off the melting of
tanks that had depeleted armor attached. I was the FASCO S-3 ordered by BG
Whaley to evacuate the 11th ACR's damaged equipment. To over see it I had to be
on scene. I photographed QAASES (Kwases) personnel using Geiger counters and
11th ACR Service Company men welding depleted uranium back on to the M1-A1's
for transport. CBS 60 Minutes did a piece on this some years ago. The govt
denied anyone handled the DU. I called the Jackson State proffessor the next
day. I sent him eight photos of the scenes. Proof positive, some of those guys
died from exposure soon after. He also mentioned that he has had his life
threatened over this issue being brought to light.

* If this story proves to be true, it will be absolute conformation that
a major 21 year international cover up of the highest order has just taken
place

* Thank you for your excellent reporting. Your story was far and away
the best coverage of this breaking news.

* There's a good body of medical evidence showing that some troops who
got anthrax vaccinations (and possibly others) developed serious illness, and
of those, some remained permanently debilitated. It remains a point of
contention that DoD's contracted RAND study on vaccinations, written by Dr.
Beatrice Golomb, was never allowed to be published.

* Some of us got the Botulism vaccine. 9 years later I was given the
choice to stay in the Guard and take the mandatory anthrax vaccine or ETS. I
got out, no more experimenting on this soldier.

* This important 2011 study shows how much Iraqi troops were also
affected. Of interest to us ill U.S. veterans of the 1991 Gulf War, those with
the most symptom complaints were closest to Kuwait, adding even more credence
to new evidence of the release of chemical warfare agents during the war.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21805460

* I was a CBR Specialist in Korea in 1965 and was responsible for
Nuclear prediction plotting for the army. Using available weather data and
nuclear weapon tonage for ground or air burst, would plot what were called wind
vector plots to show predicteded radiation levels for a given area at a given time.
This is basically the same process for the chemical conditions noted in the
article and the information should have been and I suspect was known within
days if not hours of the incident happening. It took decades for the VA to
admit coverage for Vietnam Vets for Agent Orange and then only with outside
investigation and effort of others. The military and government have a
reputation for not admitting cupability untill proven without a doubt that it
is responsible. From one old vet to anther I hope this study and others bring
good results for those vets who have suffered from Gulf War Syndrome.

* Has an epidemiological study been done on the Saudi civilians in the
same area where our troops were bivouacked? Surely they weren't in a total
no-man's land.

* There is no Mystery over GWI/GWS call it what you may, ask any Veteran
who was deployed/non deployed they can tell you Exactly what the Causes are.

* That's why the illness was called a 'syndrome' - because there appears
to be multiple (possibly interacting) causes: vaccines (given too close
together in time, or in untested, unsafe combinations), plumes wafting from
Nasiriyah and Khamisiya (I believe there was more than just sarin stockpiled
there), depleted uranium (airborne dust), insecticides, toxic smoke from
burning oil wells, and pyridostigmine... very unfriendly fire, it seems...

* Imagine that...even with the testimony of a seasoned 1st Marine
Division NBC Officer in front of Congress that the FOX NBC detection vehicles
and other alarm systems were tested to 99.99% reliability, multiple alarms,
simultaneously from various locations gave warnings indicating sarin...Marines
having similar symptoms, 22 years later with this evidence, the VA will still
question the validity. * Let's not forget two rounds exploding 400 out and 400
up and witnessed by this artillery subject matter expert (SME) (Artillery
Survey, Meteorological and Radar Officer)--knowing the rounds were not smoke or
high explosive--had his Marines go to MOPP Level IV. While calling in the
sighting to Battalion Headquarters, (talking to the BN NBC Officer(another SME)
the battalion detection alarms were going off in the background over the radio.
I asked him what it was, and he stated, "Sarin...stay suited up at MOPP
Level IV." Multiple times before and throughout the offensive into Kuwait,
detection devices blasted the warnings. The NBC Officer was later reprimanded
and given an adverse fitness report for being an alarmist during combat
operations. Go figure!

* This has been documented before though not made very public. http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk/biological_black_magic.htm

* Brothers and sisters, take it from an old Navy vet – the brass always,
always covers its ass, all the way up the line.

* The US
military and government health institutes have known about depleted uranium,
the biological agents which were released through bombing of Iraqi sites and
the contaminated vaccines in human bodies and their effects since 1996. But
they hired some psychiatrists to pretend it was otherwise, and falsely claim
that it "was all in the mind". Psychiatrists have labelled and still
label gulf war illness as psychiatric and "all in the mind", a
somatic syndrome. I think ordinary soldiers and ex-soldiers should be given the
full report on Dr. Wessely (top British and international psychiatrist used by
armed forces chiefs and governments) and his disciples and how they mislead
them, and ruined their lives. The soldiers are sufficiently trained to deal with
this particular problem.

2 comments:

I am a Gulf War I veteran who feels I might be left out of solutions or treatments. To explain I was in England during Jan-Mar 1991. Bombers would bomb infrastructure that contained weapons or arms. After the war I was sent to Dharhan, Saudi Arabia from Sept. 93 to Jan 94. We would were to manage the no-fly zone, most don't know that if a SCUD site was found or decided to come on line we were to take it out. It happened numerous times. I am mechanic so I worked on those planes that went through smoke and plumes of smoke. Tell me I could not be susceptible to whatever came up.

I was a member of the 11th ACR from September 1990 to August 1993, I was deployed to Doha Kuwait with the Regiment in 1991. I was also on the base during the explosion, and clean up efforts. At no time were we ever told to wear any for of protective equipment. In the log of events for that day it went as far as the Regimental public affairs officer ( Bill Shirley ) giving orders that no mention of radiation was to be leaked to the press.I am now in remission from late stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma, I have lost half my bowel, have a rash that I have to wash with a medicated body wash for the rest of my life, I suffer with severe migraine head aches, And I have been diagnosed with PTSD to the point that myself and my wife cannot sleep in the same bed.

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Jamie Reno, an award-winning correspondent for Newsweek for 20 years, has also written for The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, People, Men’s Journal, ESPN, International Business Times, The Daily Beast, Los Angeles Times, TV Guide, Mother Jones, MSNBC, Newsmax, Entertainment Weekly and USA Today. Reno, who’s won more than 100 writing awards, was the lead reporter on a Newsweek series on the 9/11 terrorist attacks that earned him and his colleagues the National Magazine Award for General Excellence, the highest award in magazine journalism. Reno is also an acclaimed author, singer-songwriter, advocate for cancer patients, war veterans and children, and 18-year, three-time cancer survivor. He lives in San Diego with his wife, Gabriela, and their daughter, Mandy.